The list of compiled cases showed incidents where officers had been "under such pressure to deliver it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous", he said.

"Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask 'What the hell is going on?'."

'Talking to'

Federation chairman Jan Berry said some officers were considering leaving the service over the issue because it was "not the job they signed up to do".

She added: "Just talking to people and giving them a few words of advice cannot be counted as easily as a ticket can be.

"But sometimes it is just as effective as taking someone to court."

Mrs Berry added that the issue would be raised with Home Secretary John Reid later in the week when he attends the conference.

The Chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, John Denham, told the BBC questions need to be directed at senior figures in the police service.

"Over the last few years we've seen a massive investment in police resources and yet we haven't seen the scale of increases in cases brought to court for things like burglary and car thieves, and robbers and child pornographers that we would want," he said.

"Clearly the government is right to say on behalf of taxpayers - we want to see value for money for that investment.

Officers should not pursue detection numbers for numbers' sake if that means chasing minor misdemeanours at the expense of serious offenders

Home Office spokeswoman

"Now, if between that message and Jan Berry's members it is being distorted into crude number chasing by senior police officers, that's where we've got to tackle the problem."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "Bringing criminals to justice is a core job for the police, but officers should not pursue detection numbers for numbers' sake if that means chasing minor misdemeanours at the expense of serious offenders.

"This amounts to hitting the target, but missing the point.

"We are currently discussing future targets in this area so that both our crime reduction and detections targets give much more prominence to more serious crime, particularly the most serious violent crime."

Paul Cavadino, Chief Executive of Nacro, the crime reduction charity, said: "Law enforcement agencies should not be judged by how many offenders they arrest but on how much they reduce crime."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said Whitehall targets were "stopping the police from doing what the public want them to do".

He added: "Conservatives would free the police from Labour's red tape so they can be deployed onto our streets - where the public want them."